Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1887-11-03
LOUISIANA eAYOUx.

LOUISIANA sAYOUx
Tho Richest Cotton and s.g.r-Bsasi.a
Ground In the United states.
The track ran through interminab&e
swamps of giant expresses. magnolia
and fig trees Their myriads of gray
trunks stood knee-high in water, open
ing in silent vistas on either side as the
train passed through. Overhead huge
vicious coils of vines knotted these bare
columns together. 1t was March. but
there was no coy, tender approach d
spring here. Nature was a savage
fierce, prolific. The very leaves which
in the North would have put forth a
timid green burst open here like clots
of blood or an angry glare Of white;
even the thickets of saplings were hoary
As with age. Strange red and orange
birds flashed through the somber re-
cesscs; now and then huge alligator
rose out of the plane of Shiny water.
stared at the train with dead eyes and
plunged into it again.
They were on the border Of that coast
country of Louisiana which fronts the
Mexican gulf between Barataria and
Calcasieu bays; remarkable region.
unlike any other in North America in
its peculiar features and in the somber
splendor of its scenery. The cause Of
its popularity is easily explained.
The Mississippi in Louisiana makes
a huge bend westward in the shape of
bow or crescent, the upper point
being at Vicksburg, the lower at New
Orleans, the middle of the arc running
nearly parallel with the distant coast.
To the northwest Of this arc a stretch
of pine-barrens, intersected by ranges
of low rolling hills, and broken by
numbcrless lakes and ponds, extends
into Texas. Through these the heavy
bloOd-colored food of the Red river
urges its way, carrying with it all
lesser water-courses. and emptying it
self into the Mississippi near the high
est point of this bow or detour. Its
red stain tinges the water and the
banks of all the outlets Of tho great
river thereafter to the Gulf.
With this last great influx (holding
all the streams in the Texan llanos
and the mountains of Mexico), the
Mississippi now receives the whole
drainage of the continent between tho
Rocky and Appalachian ranges. Every
spring and rainfall in that vast terri
tory helps to swell its tremendous tide
below Bayou Sara. Hence the flood of
water there pushes its way directly
to the sea with rcsistless power,
not only on its acknowledged
highway, the Mississippi, but
through the whole southern half
of Louisiana. Itliterally enters in and
occupies the land, forcing itself sea-
ward, not only by more than three
hundred bayoux. many of which are
mighty rivers, but by sluggish. scarce
moving streams, by perpetual soak
ing. creeping. oozing through all the
earth, showing itself on the surface in
countless lakes, ponds and enormous
dismal swamps, and above it in incessant
heavy rolling fogs and mists. You can
not dig three feet down in all this dis
trict without reaching water.
We must remember, too, that this
spongy soil has been soaking in for
ages the fat washings of all the rich al
luvial river-bottoms on half of the con-
tinent. No such conditions enter into
the formation of any other soil in the
world. If Louisiana can ever he drained
and rescued from the sea and the river.
her fecundity under the hot tropical
suns would be unparalleled.
As it is the parishes in this region in
elude the richest cotton. sugar and
orange-bearing ground in the States.
The forests grow to the size of the
woods before the flood, even the ghast-
ly impenetrable swamps choke with
rank life.-Rebecca Harding Dacis. in
Harper's Magazine.